Let me ask you a question: Can you imagine your loved ones coming down from the attic with your medals, achievements and honors asking about the time you shaped the strategic environment? How would you even begin to explain that–by being part of the shaping.
Now let me ask you another question: Did any of that make sense to you?
Although you’d be justified in thinking that the first question was conceived of and typed out by one of those 32 dead pigs who recently had some of their brain function restored by scientists at Yale, in fact, the text was typed out and shared on Twitter Wednesday by the country’s newest branch of the military: the United States Space Force.
The Space Force was formed by President Trump in December 2019 as a military service branch within the Department of the Air Force. It has since rolled out ads and … introduced its own Indy 500 car (?) in an effort to recruit people to join its mission of militarizing space — a decision that has famously ended well in every sci-fi movie.
The tweet appears to also be part of a recruiting effort, presumably one aimed at drawing people into the organization by evoking imagery from the 2014 Matthew McConaughey film Interstellar. Just imagine a young Mackenzie Foy padding down the steps of Matthew McConaughey’s dilapidated farmhouse in the year 2067, and asking her dad about the time he shaped the strategic environment, only to have McConaughey respond: “How would you even begin to explain that–by being part of the shaping.” Powerful.
Still, Space Force admits the tweet was a blunder. “It was a clumsy attempt to talk about the future and the significance of what a small group of people are doing, standing up our nation’s newest branch of service,” Major Nick Mercurio, a Space Force spokesperson, told the military and veteran-focused digital publication Task & Purpose. “We’re taking a clean sheet approach to building the Space Force.”
In any case, always remember that in times of uncertainty and confusion, you can center yourself by reflecting on another good question from a Space Force tweet: “did I just use space?”